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Hudson Institute

Great Power Competition and the Rising Axis

(Rising Axis logo) Hudson Great Power Competition Newsletter Nikki Haley HR McMaster
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(Rising Axis logo)

“Revisionist powers are on the rise and determined to disrupt the global order,” wrote Nadia Schadlow in the Wall Street Journal last fall. For years, Hudson’s experts have traced the interconnections within what Hudson’s H.R. McMaster has called an “axis of aggressors”—a China-led coalition that includes Russia, Iran, and North Korea and seeks to replace the United States–led international system with one more favorable to authoritarianism and tyranny. “China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea want nothing more than to build a world order that they will control,” wrote Hudson President and CEO John Walters following his trip to Ukraine earlier this year.

Bottom Line

 

“We must realize that all of these threats are working together. Our enemies want to crush us. They see a chance to destroy America. The question is, Will we let them?”
 

Nikki Haley

 

Future installments of this newsletter will examine how these aggressors are countering the US and showcase the depth of Hudson’s analysis on how America and its allies can compete with and defeat this axis.

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Facts and Figures

1. Russia relies on China, Iran, and North Korea to sustain its war machine.

  • The People’s Republic of China provides Russia with 70 to 90 percent of its computer numeric control (CNC) machine tools, which automate the production of precision-guided munitions and aircraft parts, and 90 percent of the microelectronics critical for its production of missiles, tanks, and aircraft.
  • Russia receives hundreds of drones from Iran each month and uses them to terrorize Ukrainian civilians. The two autocracies now produce hundreds more drones each month in a jointly operated plant in Russia. And recently, Iran has reportedly begun to provide the Kremlin with tactical ballistic missiles.
  • North Korea has provided Russia with millions of artillery shells and numerous types of ballistic missiles.

For more, watch or read Peter Rough’s testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

2. China supports and encourages military and economic collaboration among authoritarian regimes around the world.

For more, read Jonathan Ward’s op-ed, “Want a Stable World? Disengage from the Chinese Economy.”

3. America can do more to combat the rise of this axis.

For more, read Bryan Clark and Dan Patt’s Hudson report Hedging Bets: Rethinking Force Design for a Post-Dominance Era.